Charles Daniels (swimmer)
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| Olympic medalist | |||
 Charles Daniels |
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| Medal record | |||
| Men's Swimming | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | 1904 St. Louis | 220 yds freestyle | |
| Gold | 1904 St. Louis | 440 yds freestyle | |
| Gold | 1904 St. Louis | 4x50 yds freestyle relay | |
| Gold | 1908 London | 100 m freestyle | |
| Silver | 1904 St. Louis | 100 yds freestyle | |
| Bronze | 1904 St. Louis | 50 yds freestyle | |
| Bronze | 1908 London | 4x200 m freestyle relay | |
| 1906 Intercalated Games | |||
| Gold | 1906 Athens | 100 m freestyle | |
Charles Meldrum Daniels (born March 21, 1885 in Dayton, Ohio – died August 9, 1973 in Carmel Valley, California) was a freestyle swimmer from the United States, who won a total number of five Olympic golds during his career.
In the 1904, 1906 and 1908 Summer Olympics, Daniels won five gold medals (220 yard freestyle, 440 yard freestyle, 4 x 50 yard freestyle relay, 100m freestyle - twice), one silver medal (100 yard freestyle), and two bronze medals (50 yard freestyle, 4 x 200m freestyle relay). His totals of eight Olympic medals and five gold medals have been exceeded by only Mark Spitz among American swimmers. His victory in the final of the 100m freestyle in 1906, on the fourth day of competition, was the first of the twelve gold medals won by America's team that year.[1]
Daniels was the first great American swimmer and was a major influence on the development of that sport in the U.S. He modified the Australian crawl to six kick beats developing what was at the time called the American Crawl. He also developed the freestyle breaststroke. He won a record 31 Amateur Athletic Union individual championships, and set world freestyle records at every distance from 25 yards to one mile. Daniels was a versatile athlete. At the turn of the century he was a national junior small-bore rifle champion and also the squash champion of the New York Athletic Club. In later life he was a top-ranked amateur golfer.
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[edit] Early life
His father, Thomas Porter Daniels, was an attorney whose own father was at one time a member of the New York State Supreme Court. His mother, the former Alice Meldrum, was the daughter of a dry goods store owner who had controlling interest in a company called Dayton Dry Goods. Thomas Daniels worked for this company, which was located in downtown Dayton. They married on June 19, 1884 in a lavish wedding in Buffalo, New York. Their return to Dayton on July 14, 1884, after their honeymoon, was heralded by an article on the society page of a Dayton newspaper. Charles was one of two children; the second child, also a boy, died in infancy.
It is unknown how long the Daniels family lived in Dayton, but the business eventually vacated the city and the family moved to New York, where Daniels enrolled in the Dwight Preparatory School. There he was a miler and high jumper and captained the basketball team. He also began to frequent the New York Athletic Club, where he became interested in swimming.[2]
[edit] Swimming
In a story Charles repeated several times to his granddaughters, he told how he got into competitive swimming. He had read of the winning times in some 100 yard races held in New York City, and wondered if he could match those times. He measured off what he thought was a 100 yard course at Stony Creek Ponds in the Adirondack Mountains in eastern New York State and had himself timed. His times were comparable to the reported winning times, so he went back to New York City and entered a race at the New York Athletic Club. He was soundly beaten by the captain of the Yale University swimming team. Discouraged, he went back to his homemade course in the Adirondacks. He soon discovered it was only 90 yards long! He corrected the course and resumed practice, determined to get his time down to the competition. That was the hook that got him started.[citation needed]
When Daniels retired from swimming competition in 1911 at the age of 26, he held 53 national championships and had won 314 swimming medals and cups. In an interview sixty years later, he commented that while the current time records were considerably lower than the marks he set, one had to realize that training conditions were much different in his day. Swimmers competed wearing full-length suits with shoulder straps and with pants down to the knees. Also, meets were often held outdoors in bays and rivers, where conditions were much affected by the weather.
In 1909 Daniels was named Athlete of the Year by the Amateur Athletic Union. He was inducted into the Olympic Hall of Fame, the International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF), and the Helms Foundation Hall of Fame.
[edit] Personal
The 1930 census list his wife's names as Florence E. Daniels.[3] His former home in the Adirondacks is now a Boy Scout camp.
[edit] References
- ^ Daniels, Charles
- ^ Daniels, Charles. (2007). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved April 11, 2007, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9002634
- ^ http://www.friendsofsac.org/USCensus1930.jpg
[edit] External links
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